Pubdate: Fri, 14 May 2004
Source: Chilliwack Times (CN BC)
Copyright: 2004 Chilliwack Times
Contact:  http://www.chilliwacktimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1357
Author: Cale Cowan
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

WHAT I LEARNED IN HIGH SCHOOL

The high school I graduated from in 1987 had fewer than 500 students. Since 
this was Ontario in the mid-1980s, that means we went all the way to Grade 13.

It's wasn't a huge school population and we were in the middle of a 
southwestern Ontario town that 17 years ago had a population of only about 
10,000 souls.

By 2004 standards, my classmates and I could be fairly described as naive 
in the realm of designer drugs.

That is to say the main choice for mind alteration at Annandale High School 
in the late '80s was what you would expect: alcohol. Sure, there were some 
dope-smokers in our midst, but they were rare and were typically on the 
social fringes.

In the carefree and innocent days of 1984-87, the jock was still king and 
weekend inebriation was an acceptable form of entertainment. Whether or not 
I was a part of such rituals is a fact that was never confirmed or denied 
for my parents. And 17 years later I see no reason to start confessing my 
past sins.

However, I've learned a few things since obtaining by Ontario Secondary 
School Graduation Diploma.

First on that list is that the social skills I learned in high school do 
not serve you anywhere outside of those halls. Second is that the rules 
imposed on students during their four or so years of secondary education 
are directly relatable to the times in which they live.

For instance, in 1987 Tillsonburg, any time you may have seen a dog roaming 
the halls, it usually meant that someone had propped a side door open to 
relieve the overwhelming Ontario humidity and a local stray had wandered in 
looking for a shady place to sleep.

Soon in Abbotsford, instead of being an interloper, that dog is more likely 
to be law enforcement and he's there to check your locker for crystal meth.

I don't understand what's wrong with kids these days that they need new and 
faster ways to fry their brains. It has gone from dope to ecstasy to 
crystal meth to heroin. Nothing is good enough for these kids.

In my day, a sixer of Labatt Blue was enough entertainment when school let 
out for a Thursday afternoon basketball game. A few hours later, you puke 
behind the gym and you go home.

Today, kids are dealing with hard-core addiction, rehab, relapse, jail, 
prostitution, violent crime, rehab, relapse ...

The dogs roaming the halls are just one way the Abbotsford school district 
is considering as a means of dealing with an ever-growing problem among 
high school students.

"We have a serious problem in our society and we've got to deal with the is 
issue. We can't pretend it doesn't exist," says school board chairman John 
Smith.

He's right, too. We can't pretend any more that the worst our kids are 
doing is chugging a few beers during half-time of a basketball game.

But it's still frustrating to see our schools making the same mistake 
nations like Canada and the U.S. have been making for the last three decades.

Drug-sniffing dogs, locker searches and cops will surely lead to a few 
suspensions and maybe expulsions and criminal charges.

But it's unlikely it will ever deal with the question of why these kids are 
turning tricks to buy their next high.

I'm sure it will come to them in prison.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom